FEATURED Blog

“She was my present, my future, my hope. She was the best thing that ever happened to me … [now] there is no life. My life went away when Banaz died” The tragic suicide of 38-year-old Rahmat Sulemani, partner of ‘honour’ killing victim Banaz Mahmod, is a devastating loss for...

This is the full-length version of an article published by the New Statesman on 13 May 2016. Recently published figures on forced marriage confirm that the crime is vastly under-reported and that only a fraction of investigations result in prosecution. This comes as no surprise to me, and we can...

The murder of Asad Shah in March this year brought simmering tensions within Muslim communities sharply into focus. Muslim rights group MPAC UK were quick to cry ‘Islamophobia’ when news first broke that Mr Shah, a popular shopkeeper from the Shawlands area of Glasgow, had been stabbed to death. Their...

The leaked report of a review into the prevalence of extremism in UK prisons reveals that the Ministry of Justice is failing to address the spread of Islamism among convicted criminals. Hate literature that was being “routinely distributed” in at least ten prisons was “misogynistic and homophobic” in nature, and encouraged “the murder of apostates”. The...

“People are following me, they are still following me. That’s the main reason that I came to the police station. In the future, at any time, if anything happens to me, it’s them.” These are the words of 19-year old Banaz Mahmod as she describes on police videotape the attempts by...

So a couple of weeks ago I read an article by Allison Pearson for The Telegraph about a new item of clothing being sold by our beloved British retailer Marks and Spencer: the burkini. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it is a name coined for...

In March this year the Islamic Society at the London School of Economics held a gala dinner that segregated men and women, erecting a 7ft screen to split the hall in two – in order to prevent any other type of erections, they’d argue. Unsurprisingly, those that don’t hold the view...

Religion and spirituality – or lack thereof – are deeply personal issues, and the way that followers practice their faith can change drastically over time according to each individual’s journey. But within many Muslim communities, women are subjected to constant monitoring of their behaviour and are assessed on whether they are ‘Muslim enough’. Despite the irrelevance...

“What can you remember from that time?” asks Linda, gently. Henna shuts her eyes briefly and involuntarily flinches. Trying to open up that memory box is painful: the process of trying to remember hurts as much as the newly uncovered memories themselves. In that room with the wooden shutters pulled...

Warning: this post contains spoilers (although the title gives it away tbh) The recently aired BBC 3 drama Murdered by my Father is an incredibly powerful depiction of the circumstances in which ‘honour’-based violence takes place. Screenwriter Vinay Patel developed the story following detailed consultation with specialist support charity IKWRO (the Iranian and...